Cam Ponders the Real Meaning of Joy in ‘Road to Happiness’ [Listen]

Cam is striking a new tone with her latest song, "Road to Happiness," which is both light and serious at the same time. The singer is asking listeners to consider what they really want out of life, which bears a timely message about learning to enjoy the ride.

There's not a lot of instrumentation to clutter Cam's message on "Road to Happiness," just an acoustic guitar finger-style pattern that gently accompanies her delicate voice for the introduction. That builds to a swirl of other instruments as the song progresses, but the clean production still leaves plenty of space for Cam's voice to shine, and she gives a simple, straight-to-the-melody vocal performance that keeps the focus on the lyrics.

She's taking a step back from the high-octane vocal delivery she essayed with her most recent single, "Diane," and settling more into the contemplative wheelhouse of her debut hit, "Burning House." You can actually hear the fingers on the strings of the guitar, which gives the track an authentic singer-songwriter quality that's rare in the commercial side of the country genre in this day and age.

The message of "Road to Happiness" is both uplifting and thought-provoking, as Cam and her co-writers, Tyler Johnson and Hillary Lindsey, reflect on whether the daily grind we go through to try to achieve our visions of success and happiness is worth it. "It's the wild unknown / It's a ball-and-chain / It's a no-end destination / We keep drivin' anyway / Is the future that we're chasin' / Worth the right-nows that we miss / On this road to happiness?" Cam sings in the chorus.

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She sweetens the choruses with layers of sunny harmonies that balance out the serious tone of the track, making "Road to Happiness" one of the most satisfying listening experiences of the year in country music. Cam says the somber tone of the lyrics draws from a struggle of her own.

"I've met unhappy successful people and happy 'unsuccessful' people," she shares in a press release. "There's no one road to happiness, it doesn't exist, it's an illusion. Happiness is now and it's up to you to feel it in the moment. This song is me working through all this, and trying to be present and happy in my own way."

Cam's "Road to Happiness" Lyrics:

Be careful who you hang around; beliefs are sticky things / Stick on your shoes and on your soul, rearrange your dreams / Get so good at climbin' you stop askin' where it leads / On this road to happiness

Chorus:

It's the wild unknown / It's a ball-and-chain / It's a no-end destination / We keep drivin' anyway / Is the future that we're chasin' / Worth the right-nows that we miss / On this road to happiness?

I'm takin' time to ask myself just where I wanna be / Does the flower growin' in the ground worry just like me / Or does he love the sun so much that he don't mind the weeds / On this road to happiness?